Prosecution has launched an investigation against the anti-police activist for publicly vilifying officers. Citing the pandemic, authorities have refused to grant permission to a commemoration in tribute to a female officer who had taken her own life, but the Traore Committee was allowed to stage a demonstration against police violence and racism in the capital. The protest was green-lighted even despite the pandemic restrictions, which were not in place during the planned commemoration.

According to press reports, the prosecutor s office has launched an investigation into hate speech against Samir B. Elyes, a member of the committee headed by Assa Traore, after Mr Elyes had openly incited against French police at a demonstration in Paris on 20 March. (Assa Traore is the sister of Adama Traore, a French-born young man  of Malian descent who died after his arrest in 2016 – ed.). The activist in question accused the police of being Negrophobic, claiming that 80 per cent of the officers are racist. He continued his rant by claiming that cops obviously dislike them, so the committee wants to make sure that cops could no longer enter their neighbourhoods. 

The furious protester claimed that police were the masters of life and death in France as the justice system grants them permission to kill. He then added that he thought Assa Traore and her family were in danger.

Samir B. Elyes has a history of vilifying police officers. In a statement last year, he claimed that police today are far more violent than in his time, and simply called officers pigs, because he thought pigs are the most hated animals on the planet.

Once again, the Traore Committee has managed to mobilise massive crowds on the streets of the French capital. BFMTV estimates that thousands attended the rally, which was green-lighted by authorities despite the fact that several French départements – including the capital city of Paris – are in lockdown due the soaring number of coronavirus cases.

It is also interesting that another demonstration – in honour of a young policewoman, Aurelia, who had committed suicide – was not permitted by the authorities, even though it would have been held in Paris on 10 March, before the restrictions were imposed. Citing the pandemic, the prefect turned down a family request for the commemoration where poeple could have paid tribute to the officer, who ended her life using her service weapon last September, at the age of 27. In her farewell letter, she emphasized how she was no longer able to tolerate being ignored and feeling like she did not matter. According to Le Parisien, the investigation into the female officer s death was closed after 6 months and concluded that she had personal issues, something her family refuses to acknowledge and believe. They claim that Aurelia had suffered a serious injury during a deployment, and that her superiors had failed to provide proper psychological treatment.

In contrast, on 20 March, the first day of the four-week lockdown in Paris, the prefect gave permission to Assa Traore s committee to mobilise huge crowds on the street, even despite the deteriorating health situation.

Footage taken at the demonstration clearly shows the organisers standing in close proximity to one another, flouting the mandatory social distancing rules. Moreover, no one wore a mask, even though the current regulation requires masks to be worn in public places throughout the country.

A few days earlier, there was a recording of Assa Traore, yelling, without a mask, at a protester demonstrating in front of the Odeon Theatre in Paris to draw attention to the dismal situation of cultural facilities.